On iGo
by The Masked Wanderer
Summary: Roxas plays go on the computer for a change, though he doesn't think it's all that great at first. But his mind's been changed before...  a sequel to "On Go".


On iGo

Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru No Go or Kingdom Hearts

Roxas hated iGo with a passion. Or at least with as much passion as a Nobody could fake.

iGo stood for internet go, or go played on the computer. This meant that people could play go whenever they wanted with whoever they wanted, as long as the time was convenient.

It drove him crazy to think how far technology had come, and how much it had taken away as a result.

Roxas was currently sitting on the clock tower with his laptop that Vexen had given him. "Hah! Go on the internet! What a stupid idea!"

In his opinion, nothing compared to playing go in person. And with real stones, not some pixilated images created by technology. And he wanted to see the face of the person he was fighting, to watch the feelings of joy he got when he captured Roxas' stone, and even more, he wanted to see the humiliation and defeat on his face when Roxas took his stones and crushed him once and for all. But most importantly, he wanted to see the magnificent beauty of a go stone being placed upon the board, in the same way that Hikaru had played it a few days ago.

The first time Roxas had played go was in another world, with a guy named Hikaru Shindou. It was the most incredible experience of his life. When he was near that board, Roxas hadn't wanted to be anywhere else in the worlds, not even with Axel and Xion on the clock tower eating ice cream.

And that, he felt, was saying something.

When he played Hikaru, Roxas felt at peace with himself. It made him feel like he actually belonged somewhere.

But playing on the internet? "No. That's just ridiculous."

Currently, Roxas was watching an episode of Hikaru No Go, where Sai was facing Toya Meijin. Currently, Sai was in the lead, but Toya was matching him evenly. Roxas was completely hooked to the show by this point. He felt like he could just sit there forever, watching and re-watching this show until his eyes rolled out of his eye sockets.

All of a sudden, he heard a beeping sound. Roxas was startled. He glanced on the screen, looking for the source of the noise.

And then he found it. It was a text box on the bottom tab that said, "New Message".

Slowly, Roxas put his finger on the mouse pad and clicked on the box. Instantly, a gray box popped up in front of the video page. Scanning the message, he read it out loud.

"You have a challenge to a game of go from a player who wishes to conceal his/her identity. Do you accept?"

Initially, Roxas was hesitant. He did not want to play someone without knowing who he was. Also, he did not want to play iGo. Not now. Not ever.

Just as Roxas began to move to the "Decline" button, something stopped him.

His hand was frozen, unable to move.

"What the…"

It was as though something deep inside him was _preventing _him from backing down.

After much deliberation, Roxas shrugged and clicked "Accept."

How different could iGo be?

The screen changed to the board. There was no timer on the clock, the stats were set, everything was perfect.

Roxas chose black and made the first move. He clicked on the 'tenzen', or center of the board. "Perfect," he declared. This gave him central influence over the board.

White took two minutes to answer, and then played on top of black's first move.

"Hmmm…" Roxas was impressed. This guy really seemed aggressive to him. He didn't even try to secure area around the rest of the board.

But he wouldn't make that mistake again. This time, Roxas played on the star point on the right diagonal of the center. As long as he had the center, Roxas was in control. Rather than waste moves trying to save it, he would secure territory all around the board, and only when white was one move from capturing the center would Roxas save it.

But White was smart. It played its next move on another star point, on the diagonal left of the center star point.

And so it went for a while. Twenty minutes had passed, and Roxas now had the upper hand. On the top left side of the board, Black was surrounding white and was only one move away from capturing all the white stones. But on the bottom left, white had somehow lived by creating two eyes by one move, making black unable to capture it. On the right side, Black had started to control the top right half, though white was trying to intervene. Roxas kept countering White's moves, because if it connected with the white stones on the other side of the board…well, he was pretty much screwed.

Then Roxas made a move he wished he hadn't made.

He placed a black stone surrounding white territory, which also connected to his black stones. This meant that Black was one stone away from taking the white stones. But there was a problem; that particular stone was surrounded by THREE white stones. All white needed to do was take that stone, and it would live.

Panicking, Roxas looked on the screen for something to do. If only he could take that move back.

Then he saw the undo button. Relieved, he pressed it, and the move was taken back.

Roxas was amazed at the technology that lay before his fingertips. If he wanted to undo something, the computer did it for him. Roxas put a hand through his hair in wonder.

iGo was truly an amazing thing after all.


End file.
